Progress Report Survey Tips

This is a continuation on the benefits of using surveys as a method of receiving status reports for large projects. Other benefits include: Catch Lying Since employees are expected to fill out the survey honestly, you will also be able to catch employees that are otherwise procrastinating. Either they will not provide any updates for their projects, or they'll provide updates and if you ask to view the updates' completion they'll have nothing to show for it.

There can be much less confusion or defensiveness, especially when compared to meeting updates. Motivation Regular surveys and blatant accountability will also serve as a motivation factor for the employee. They know that they need to be providing you with regular updates, and they know that they need to complete aspects of the projects by certain dates, so they are far more likely to stay motivated towards completing their goals, knowing that their actions are regularly accountable.

Reminder of Work to Do If you have developed a thorough survey, you'll also be constantly reminding the employee what work they need to complete. Employees will become far less likely to forget an aspect of their project, because every day they'll be completing a survey that updates them on the next steps. In many ways, these surveys are a version of the SMART goal system – an effective method of achieving goals.

You can also set reminders that tell you when to make sure a specific aspect of the project is completed, or find a way to be notified when the employee has not reached a part of the project by a certain time. Overall, regular surveys are a far more consistent, effective, and efficient method of receiving employee progress reports.

Do surveys have any weaknesses as a progress report system? Not necessarily. It can be a slight bother for the employee, but so are regular meetings.

Surveys don't exclude the idea of a meeting either, they simply make it less important so that you can focus on other tasks unless a meeting is absolutely necessary. The only potential weakness of a survey is that employees may not feel open to asking questions, getting tips, or receiving clarification for items they're confused over, but that is still true at meetings. While not every company should be quickly jumping on the surveys-as-progress-reports bandwagon, there is a great deal of logic behind using a survey in this creative way, and it does serve as a good example of how surveys can be used for thing other than traditional research.